With the advancement of packaging technology, over the years the method of packaging and selling liquids (such as milk, juices, motor oil, etc.) has progressed from the use of rigid glass, metallic, plastic or cellulose containers, to the more common approach where such liquids are sealed within thin walled flexible bags formed from plastic or other materials. Today, the use of such bags to distribute and sell milk, juices and other liquids is a common place. Typically the bags are of a standardized size and volume (for example one quart or one liter) to allow them to fit into standardized jugs or pitchers. Most commonly, individual bags are inserted into a jug or pitcher with the upper portion of the bag extending beyond the top of the pitcher so that a corner of the bag can be cut or removed to allow for the dispensing of the liquid.
While literally millions of such pitchers have been sold, and countless millions of bags manufactured for use in such pitchers, the dispensing of liquid in the described fashion continues to suffer from a number of inherent limitations. Not the least of these limitations occurs when the bag has been initially opened and is full, or substantially full, of fluid. As mentioned, manufacturers of existing pitchers have typically constructed them so that they are somewhat shorter than the length of the bag of milk or fluid to be received therein. Constructing pitchers in this manner permits a few inches of the bag to extend through the top of the pitcher, making it easier for the consumer to grasp a corner of the bag and cut it with a pair of scissors or a knife in order to access the fluid therein. Making the pitcher shorter than the length of the bag also helps to facilitate the insertion and removal of the bag into and out of the pitcher. However, when a bag is full, or substantially full, and when fluid is being dispensed from a cut corner, there is a natural tendency for the bag to “flop” forward towards the open cut corner, sometimes causing an uncontrolled flow of liquid. In addition, as fluid is dispensed from the bag, the bag has a tendency to collapse upon itself, often making it difficult to extract the last bit of fluid from the bottom of the bag. In such circumstances consumers often discard the remaining fluid within the bag or resort to removing the bag completely from the pitcher and attempting to manually extract any fluid that is left in its bottom. Neither of these options is desirable and both present the possibility of lost fluid, uncontrolled flow, and/or spillage.